


Five Letters

by deedeeinfj



Category: Parks and Recreation
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-09
Updated: 2013-02-09
Packaged: 2017-11-28 18:20:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/677417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deedeeinfj/pseuds/deedeeinfj
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What was the essence of their third date?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five Letters

“I have a confession to make,” Ben says as he threads his fingers through her hair.

Leslie lifts her head from his shoulder and smiles down at him. “Oh, really? Maybe you should have told me that before I gave you my body.” She’s using her low, sex-kitten voice – the one that sounds nothing like her  _actual_  sex voice.

He grins. “Well, it was really important to me to get some on Valentine’s Day.”

“That’s fair.” She lays her head back on his shoulder and draws circles on his chest with her fingertips. “So you’re going to own up to not getting all the clues?”

“What? Who… How did you know?”

“Because,” she laughs, “you had to get one of the clues from me.”

“Okay, you got me. I failed,” he says with an exaggerated sigh.

She tightens her arm around him and snuggles closer. “You met me at the finish line. I don’t care how you got there.”

“C’mere,” he mumbles, drawing her up for a kiss.

Her lips are soft and eager against his, and he lets her take the lead as she climbs over him and relaxes all of her warm weight on him. “I might want you to take advantage of me again, Ben,” she says, her lips tickling his neck. “If you’re up for it…” She moves her hips. “…Which I think you are.”

“Just one thing that’s been nagging at me,” he says as he slides his hands down her back. “What was the five-letter password?”

“Ben, seriously?” she exclaims, pushing herself up. “Seriously?” She’s smiling broadly, so at least she’s not angry.

“Um… I tried all day. And it’s not like I forgot our date. I tried ‘movie’ and ‘pasta’ and ‘paint’ and ‘rugby’ and ‘moose’ and…”

* * *

“So, do you really hate libraries, or is that a Parks and Rec inside joke?”

Leslie narrows her eyes at the man across the table. He's just twirling his fork in his spaghetti as if he didn't just ask the most ridiculous question in the world. “I  _hate_  them,” she hisses. “They're the... the essence of everything bad in the world.”

Ben's mouth quirks up. “Are you being serious right now? 'Cause I can't tell.” She isn't sure what face she's making, but it obviously answers his question because he continues, “Free books? Really?”

“Libraries encourage people to take books too lightly. A book is something you should own and treasure and write all over and lend to your friends. And then they get passed down to your kids. When you have a library, it's like, 'Oh, here, let me read this book and just give it back and forget that it ever existed, whatever.'”

By this time, Ben's fork lies forgotten on his plate. “What about people who can't afford books, Leslie? What are they supposed to do? And what about schoolkids who have to read about – I don't know, frogs – for a class project? I have to tell you, whenever I go to a new town, the library is one of the last things I want to cut.”

“But Parks and Recreation is totally expendable, is that it?”

“I... what?”

It gets worse. They argue through dinner, argue in the car, argue at Ben's doorstep. Somehow it comes out that Leslie's real problem is Tammy Swanson, not the library. Ben says something about her “sexy passion for books.” The evening gets decidedly better and more naked after that.

* * * 

“The word was ‘fight,’” Leslie says, lowering herself back onto him. “You forgot about our first fight. I’m going to kiss all over you, starting with your face.”

“Oh,” he manages to say between kisses, “I remember us fighting, but I never would’ve thought of that as the  _essence_  of the date. I’m kind of surprised that you--”

“I need you to shut up and make out with me right now,” she says.

“I can do that.”

And he does.


End file.
